The principle of widening is to find that common thread that runs through creation. On the surface, there is only division and a narrowing. Still, there are some images on the surfaces of life that can help us widen. One such image is to contemplate the star-filled Space or even a vast water body as the ocean. These images from Nature can be very useful since the mind automatically follows the images and enters into a vast inner space. Of course, it is temporary yet even this much offers a great vantage point since the mind tastes what it means and hence tries to arrive at that state more often through its own inner means. The use of these images and imagination is somewhat like worshipping the Deity through an idol. After a while, our consciousness goes beyond the outer form and adores the qualities of the Deity that the idol represents. Subsequently, it enters into the truth that the idol represents. So too after these physical exercises, one can practice psychological methods of widening by contemplating the boundlessness of Space, the endlessness of Time. Even a few moments of such contemplation is enough to liberate oneself from the clutch of the moment. A still deeper way is the method of meditating upon the Divine Presence in all, all in the Divine and all as the Divine. The first two methods are good preparatory movements but the last one is definitive and leads to the eventual realisation.
